One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 3 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 4 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 5 of 19

Image 6 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 7 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 8 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 9 of 19

ERIC KAYNE PHOTOS
DISAPPEARING HISTORY: One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the 10 tiny row houses in the 1500 block of Victor Street - the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown less

ERIC KAYNE PHOTOS
DISAPPEARING HISTORY: One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the 10 tiny row houses in the 1500 ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 10 of 19

Image 11 of 19

SOON TO BE GONE: A demolition permit for the row houses has been filed.

SOON TO BE GONE: A demolition permit for the row houses has been filed.

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 12 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 13 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 14 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 15 of 19

Image 16 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 17 of 19

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown. Photographed Sept. 9, 2011 in Houston. (Eric Kayne/For the Chronicle) less

One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the ten tiny row houses in the 1501 block of Victor Street -- the last ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 18 of 19

ERIC KAYNE PHOTOS
DISAPPEARING HISTORY: One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the 10 tiny row houses in the 1500 block of Victor Street - the last intact block of row houses in a neighborhood that's ever less the Fourth Ward, and ever more Midtown less

ERIC KAYNE PHOTOS
DISAPPEARING HISTORY: One of the last shreds of the historic Fourth Ward/Freedman's Town will very likely disappear soon. A permit has been filed to demolish the 10 tiny row houses in the 1500 ... more

Photo: Eric Kayne

Image 19 of 19

Gray: Last row houses in Freedmen's Town face demolition

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On Victor Street last week, the 10 tiny houses still stood all in a row: the last row of row houses in what was once Freedmen's Town, the first center of African-American life in Houston. But by the time you read this, the houses may already be gone.

In the 1860s, when emancipated slaves settled Freedman's Town, at the edge of downtown Houston, they often lived in row houses, also known as "shotgun cottages." The long, skinny houses, only one story tall and one room wide, were designed to make the most of any cooling breeze. It was said that if you fired a shotgun through the front door, the pellets could hurtle through the house and out the back door, unslowed by bothersome walls and halls in between.

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The 10 clapboard cottages on 1501 to 1519 Victor Street were apparently built in two phases - some in 1914, others in 1920-22 - but they all looked alike: a typical row of row houses, nothing fancy, nothing special.

But just by surviving, they became special. Starting in the mid-1990s, new, upscale townhouses began replacing the run-down older cottages; and as wealthier townhouse owners moved in, low-income renters moved elsewhere. Hardly anyone calls it Freedman's Town or the Fourth Ward anymore. Now it's just Midtown.

On Monday, when I drove down Victor, a narrow street just a block north of busy West Gray, the 10 little houses still were standing - bedraggled and boarded up, but still standing, and still able to make me catch my breath. It's one thing to know something intellectually about African-American history in the early 20th century. It's another thing entirely to look at that row of tiny houses, to imagine whole families living in 400 square feet. I didn't just know how different those lives are from mine; I could feel it in my gut.

But like I said, by now those houses may already be gone. The owners of that last row of row houses have filed a demolition permit with the city of Houston.

An 'economic misimprovement'

Last week, Minnette Boesel, the mayor's assistant for cultural affairs, was trying to track down the owners, Kimsu and Kimberly Hoang. Boesel and a member of City Councilwoman Wanda Adams' office were trying to track down the couple or their son.

Boesel, a longtime preservationist, was hoping to have a chance to make her case that the houses represent something special for the city; she had no real leverage. Although the houses are listed in both the National Historic Register and the Houston Architectural Guide, under city law, they're nothing special. And in nothing-special cases, demolition permits generally go through in less than a week.

Boesel assumed that the owners either plan to build something new, or to sell the land to someone who will. And given that they'd already applied for a demolition permit, she guessed that the plans were well advanced. She sounded like a nurse in a ward full of Stage IV cancer patients: hopeful in spite of herself, still hatching last-ditch plans even though she knew how the story was likely to end.

According to the Harris County Appraisal District, the total value of the 10 row houses was less than $750 - which is at least half a million dollars less than the land beneath them, an entire block face in Midtown. In the harsh language of the appraisal district, the historic row of row houses is an "economic misimprovement" - a blight on land just aching to be redeveloped.

For most of their existence, the 10 little houses on Victor Street had been typical of Freedman's Town. And now, it appeared, they were about to disappear in the typical fashion, too.